Torquato Tasso: Quotes about love

Torquato Tasso was Italian poet. Explore interesting quotes on love.
Torquato Tasso: 188 quotes6 likes

“She fair, he full of bashfulness and truth,
Loved much, hoped little, and desired nought.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto II, stanza 16 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Any time not spent on love is wasted.”

Torquato Tasso

“For love she wist was weak without those arts,
And slow; for jealousy is Cupid's food;
For the swift steed runs not so fast alone,
As when some strain, some strive him to outgone.”

Torquato Tasso

Alfin s'invecchia amore
Senza quest' arti, e divien pigro e lento,
Quasi destrier che men veloce corra,
Se non ha chilo segua, o chi 'l precorra.
Canto V, stanza 70 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Gather the rose of love, while yet thou mayest,
Loving, be loved; embracing, be embraced.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto XVI, stanza 15 (tr. Fairfax)
Compare:
Gather the Rose of Love, whilst yet is time,
Whilst loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime.
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, B. II, C. XII, st. 75
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
Robert Herrick, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“O love, o wonder; love new born, new bred,
Now groan, now armed, this champion captive led.”

Torquato Tasso

Oh meraviglia! Amor, ch'appena è nato,
Già grande vola, e già trionfa armato.
Canto I, stanza 47 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Love the servant of gold is the greatest,
foulest, most abominable monster
created on earth or amid the sea's waves.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Amor servo de l'oro, è il maggior mostro,
Et il più abominabile, e il più sozzo,
Che produca la terra, o 'l mar frà l'onde.
Act II, scene i.
Aminta (1573)

“Lovely Nymphs, ye sister Nymphs of the river Po,
And ye from out the greenwood and where the sea-waves beat,
And ye who live by fountains and on hill-tops high.”

Torquato Tasso

Vaghe Ninfe del Po, Ninfe sorelle,
E voi de' boschi e voi d'onda marina
E voi de' fonti e de l'alpestri cime.
Rime d'amore ("Rhymes of Love"), 175.

“No need for death,
For to wring two hearts
First faith sufficed and then love.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Non bisogna la morte,
Ch'astringer nobil cuore,
Prima basta la fede, e poi l'amore.
Act III, Chorus.
Aminta (1573)

“Love calls it folly, what so wisdom saith.”

Torquato Tasso

Nè consiglio d'uom sano Amor riceve.
Canto V, stanza 78 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Love, let others read
The Socratic papers,
While in two beautiful eyes I will apprehend this art.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Amor, leggan pur gli altri
Le Socratiche carte,
Ch'io in due begl'occhi apprenderò quest'arte.
Act II, Chorus.
Aminta (1573)

“Lovers she hated, though she loved their love.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto XVI, stanza 38 (tr. T. B. Harbottle)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Pity is the messenger of Love
as lightning is of thunder.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Act IV, scene i.
Aminta (1573)

“Thus if just once you tasted
the thousandth part of joy's flavor,
savor from a loving and beloved heart,
repentently you'd say:
"Lost is all that time
I didn't spend in love!"”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Forse, se tu gustassi anco una volta
La millesima parte de la gioie
Che gusta un cor amato riamando,
Diresti, ripentita, sospirando:
Perduto è tutto il tempo
Che in amar non si spende.
Act I, scene i, lines 26–31.
Variant translations:
All time is truly lost and gone
Which is not spent in serving love.
All time is lost that is not spent in love.
Lost is all the time that you don't spend in love.
Aminta (1573)

“Wherever I am, I am Love, no less
among these shepherds than with nobility.
And inequalities of subjects to my rule
I balance as I please.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Ovunque i mi sia, io sono Amore.
Ne'pastori non men, che ne gli heroi;
E la disagguaglianza de'soggetti,
Come à me piace, agguaglio.
Prologue
Aminta (1573)

“Cruel Love! You bear our death in murderous vials,
filled now with gall, now with your honeyed treasure—
equally fatal all that you ensure,
whether it be the sickness or the cure.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto IV, stanza 92 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Armida smiles to hear, but keeps her gaze
fixed on herself, love's labours to behold.
Her locks she braided and their wanton ways
in lovely order marshalled and controlled.
She wound the curls of her fine strands with sprays
of flowers, like enamel worked on gold,
and made the stranger rose join with her pale
breast's native lily, and composed her veil.”

Torquato Tasso

Ride Armida a quel dir: ma non che cesse
Dal vagheggiarsi, o da' suoi bei lavori.
Poichè intrecciò le chiome, e che ripresse
Con ordin vago i lor lascivi errori,
Torse in anella i crin minuti, e in esse,
Quasi smalto su l'or, consparse i fiori:
E nel bel sen le peregrine rose
Giunse ai nativi giglj, e 'l vel compose.
Canto XVI, stanza 23 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Modesty restrains weak love,
but it is a weak bridle to powerful love.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Act V, scene i.
Aminta (1573)

“You know the world delights in lovely things,
for men have hearts sweet poetry will win,
and when the truth is seasoned in soft rhyme
it lures and leads the most reluctant in.”

Torquato Tasso

Là corre il mondo, ove più versi
Di sue dolcezze il lusinghier Parnaso;
E che 'l vero condito in molli versi,
I più schivi allettando ha persuaso.
Canto I, stanza 3 (tr. Anthony Esolen)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“For what the most neglects, most curious prove,
So Beauty's helped by Nature, Heaven, and Love.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto II, stanza 18 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)